


frost on a window/boy in a room

by dezagirl



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Au in which pitch is a younger spirit, Drabble, Gen, Hospitals, Past and present tense shenanigans, Taking up the mantle of the form. Nightmare king, Twoshot, bluh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-19
Updated: 2013-06-19
Packaged: 2017-12-15 13:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dezagirl/pseuds/dezagirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jamie Bennett is sick, Frost leaves signs on the window and Pitch is a new spirit with a bad attitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	frost on a window/boy in a room

Frost comes at night.

He presses his face flat against the window and watches the boy sleep. Monitors beep in time to the boy's heartbeat, and IV lines run from his stick-thin wrists. His brown hair barely peeks out from behind greenish blankets.

Jack breathes frost across the window and reflects. The boy's name is Jamie Bennett. Diagnosed with leukemia. This is his second return to Everest Children's Hospital.

The room is dark. Jack strokes a few fingers against the glass- drawing a lopsided daisy- and withdraws. He will return in the morning to skid across the halls and hopefully bring a little joy to the sick children.

His steps retreat quickly into the distance.

It is thirty minutes before the heart monitor beats out a stuttering rhythm of terror. The hospital room has turned the color of tar, and a gray, youthful face is leering from the darkness.

"Yes," its lips whisper. "What pleasant fears."

The darkness looms, and the figure leans forward, as if to devour, before pausing and looking at the window.

A small design in frost is evident. The figure hisses and retreats from the room. It seems another spirit had claimed this one. But maybe...

Yes, the figure thinks, slinking into the hallway. Perhaps another visit next night would be in order. If this 'protecting spirit' was weak enough....

maybe he could taste those sickly writhing fears tough the nightmares scream hurt the boy make him feel how lucky he was to have parents medicine a sister a house food show him he could lose it all

The figure's mouth warped into a tortured grimace, or maybe a smile.

\---

The next night was much the same, at first.

Jamie had woken and glimpsed the frost flower. As usual, he'd smiled tiredly and wondered at it for a moment before going onto his daily routine.

Jack didn't stick around to watch the treatment. He knew how it would be. He'd left around three and only returned near-midnight.

It was crisp, and cold, and oh-so-dark.

Jack stumbled in the darkness but managed to half-climb and half-breeze up onto the window ledge.

His eyes met with a dark being behind the glass. Two dark orbs seemed to lock onto his eyes from the encompassing darkness.

The lock on the window had clicked, and the window had flown open.

\---

Jack stumbles in, unsure, and reaches towards the staff strapped to his back.

A predatory smile gleams from inky dark, and eyes loom, a body forms, no, it is not Him, cannot be It-

A face, looking about his age, peers out with a grin.

Jack stares. Then he laughs.

__

"So you're saying old Nightmare gave you the gig and...retired?"

Jack was leaning against the bottom of the hospital bed with a relaxed expression. The dark figure- revealed to be a scowling, gray-skinned teenage something previously- rolls his eyes condescendingly.

"Are you truly that stupid?" the figure asks, voice lilting in a vaguely British way. "He didn't retire. He died. And now..." The boy smiles threateningly. "I am the one who rules fear. My name is...Pitch Black."

Frost looks unimpressed. "How'd you get that name? Look through a tacky name book?" The insult is poor but effective; 'Pitch' scowls and crosses his arms defensively.

"No," he says. "The moon told me it."

His scowl turns into a vicious grin, and Jack freezes.

\----


End file.
